Normally I am a sweet pie making kind of girl. Sweet potato pie, Apple pie, Pumpkin pie, etc. When I hear “pie”, I think generally of dessert. But it is nice to make a pie that I can serve as a meal. I’m thinking this recipe would be good to use as a standard for a variety of vegetables and fillings. Sirloin, ground lamb, tomato, peppers, jalepenos, the list goes on and on. But while I’m thinking on that, you should make this for dinner. The filling can be made one day ahead and refrigerated, so it’s easy to roll out your dough, drape the filling, and pop it in the oven. Dinner in 25 minutes and much better than pot pie from the frozen aisle.

This savory chicken pot pie went with my hubby bear to work- hopefully it tastes just as good warmed in the microwave at lunchtime. I used a bag of frozen veggies, along with fresh celery and onion, to give it color and variety while saving a bit of chopping time.

Mix of veggies and chicken with white sauce- ready to be topped with rolled pie crust.

I used a batch of pie crust I had in the freezer. You can use store bought dough (which I’ve never tried, but hey, if it works…). The original version from Alton Brown uses puff pastry, but I opted for the pie crust because it is pot PIE, after all. This dough uses both butter, for the flavor, and shortening for the flakiness.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F. Toss frozen vegetables with oil and saute in pan with oil and butter.
In a saute pan heat 1 TB of butter and sweat the onion and celery. In another saucepan, heat the broth and milk. Add 2 more TB of butter to the celery mix and cook until there is no more water in the pan. Add the flour and curry, and cook for 1-2 minutes.Whisk in the hot milk mixture and cook until thickened. Add the parsley, salt, and pepper. Toss the cooked veggies with the chicken. Pour into a pie dish or 8″ square baking dish and top with rolled out pie dough. Bake until dough is ready, about 25-30 minutes.